Delivery is Key

When I think of public speaking, I immediately remember the speech the valedictorian of my high school gave at graduation. The speech itself was alright, but certainly not award winning. She did a great job putting it together, but fell short when it came to presenting. Some people think that content is the most important part of a speech, but really, delivery is what will make or break it. You could write the best speech in the world, but if you don’t deliver it properly, your audience will not get the message or feeling that you’re trying to provoke. When it came time for the valedictorian to give her speech, I was expecting to feel some sort of emotion. But as she spoke, I quickly lost interest because she spoke in almost complete monotone. Because of her poor delivery, I don’t think people got as much out of her speech as they should have. And it’s a shame because she had so many wonderful things to say. Public speaking is like any other performance and you must embrace your speech and practice it over and over in order to get it right. Delivering a speech with the right enthusiasm really makes it come alive. While the words don’t change, it’s amazing how different of a reaction you can get from your audience simply by the way you deliver your speech. I wish the valedictorian took this more into consideration so that her audience could have enjoyed and appreciated her speech more.